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Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Bikes, Baptisms, and Senior Companion for a day!

WE ARE HAVING A
BAPTISM ON SABATO!!!!!!! AHHHHH!!!! I am soooooo excited!!!! His name is O -
the brother of F G in our Ward. He is so incredible and wonderful! On
Lunedi after our lesson, he asked if we could talk about his date. He started
to explain how he needed to change the date because of some conflicts in the
schedule with his friends. My heart started to beat so fast and I could feel my
spirits start to flicker - I thought he was going to push it back to Maggio or
Junio. O continued to explain the problem and finished by asking if he could
be baptized this Sabato instead. WHAT!? Sorella Gomez and I were speechless for
almost a minute it seemed like. My heart was immediately (once I comprehended
what he said of course) filled with happiness. I have never experienced so much
joy and happiness for another person in my life. We are preparing him to be
baptized this Sabato at 5. :)

Now to back track a
little bit. I went on a scambio or exchange on Venerdi. Mama mia... I was so
nervous! The night before we went to Savona to exchange companions - I thought
I would die when Sorella Gomez left me! But I was with Sorella Forbes and she
was incredible!! Savona is a tiny city so we got to ride bikes. Oh my
goodness!! I LOVE riding bikes!!! It is a little tricky with skirts but it was so
great! We taught an Israeli man that day - we became best friends obviously,
and later taught an amazing older man who wanted to change his life. That is
one thing I love about the gospel - we can change through the desire and
repentance. The best part was on our train ride home. There are a lot of
strikes in Italy, like a bus strike which affects the trains. You know how you
bond with the people around you if your plane is delayed? That is what happened
when we were tossed around at the train stations. So we just laughed and
chatted with all of these wonderful people on the train. On woman just laughed
at us - in a loving, motherly way. She asked if we had boyfriends etc. :) In
the end, we got 2 phone numbers and another man asked if he could have a pass along
card! It was great!

Fast forward to
Monday. Guess what? I was senior companion for a day!! Last Wednesday, we got a
call asking if Sorella Gomez and Sorella Forbes could leave for a special
training on Monday to Milano. This meant I would be paired with Sorella Lopez,
another girl from my MTC group, in Genova for a day. I thought I was going to
DIE when I first found out. Well... I thought I was going to die the whole day.
:) It ended up being a HUGE blessing though. Sorella Gomez has taught me so
well and made sure I would be fine. I also prayed with a lot of faith that I
would be able to understand more that day and be a leader. Throughout our
lessons, I felt I could understand a lot more than before. Heavenly Father
really does answer prayers. I had a great time from Sorella Lopez and learned
so much from her too. At one point on the bus, a woman was talking to us about
how she had once read a little bit of the BOM. I couldn't really hear her or
understand her too much but I just began to tell her about the purpose of life
- to have joy. I felt like time froze as I testified to her of the Love of God
and the restoration of the Church. Sorella Lopez shared her testimony after me.
There was a girl sitting next to the woman who looked up at us when we talked.
It was scary to do it without Sorella Gomez but we did it and it felt so right.
Life is so GREAT!!

Anyway... life is
wonderful!!! I love being a missionary. Sometimes, well often, it is hard. I
wonder why I am doing it or think about how long this will be but then I
realize that this is real life. We have a purpose in life - to learn and grow
and one day return to God. That is what I am helping others see too.